What makes it interesting is that Campaign for Merit in Business has evidently succeeded in stopping even Vince Cable claiming that increased gender diversity on boards leads to enhanced corporate financial performance. The idiocy of such claims – which were made regularly by Cable and many others before C4MB started campaigning in early 2012 – must have become only too painfully evident to even Cable and his colleagues.

On past form we’d expect a press release from Cable to contain at least one absurd statement, and for us the prize winner for absurdity in this particular press statement is the following:

Businesses should be making sure they have the right people around their top table. This is not about equality, this is about good governance and good business. The international evidence supports this: diverse boards are better boards benefiting from fresh perspectives, opinions and new ideas which ultimately serve the company’s long term interests.

No such ‘international evidence’ exists, of course – other than international evidence which shows declines in corporate financial performance – so we’ll be writing to Vince Cable this morning asking him to supply it under the Freedom of Information Act. We can look forward to a creative response, probably the customary opinions masquerading as facts. We’ll post the response upon receipt, with our commentary.

I see from the press release that a former General Secretary of the TUC has been appointed to the Business Bank Advisory Group. Vince Cable is clearly in the wrong party. He should be in the Communist Party of Great Britain.

One Response to More nonsense from Vince Cable, Business Secretary

Just leave businesses alone to operate as they see fit. Private enterprise is just that–private–and based on the business running itself. The government has no business interfering in the first place.
Alan Millard